I'm a Film Commissioner, Long Island International Film Expo Director, novelist, freelancer, ghost writer, casting director and producer. I don't know what lies ahead, but I'm sure it will be fun! Take my hand; join me on my journey.
"With regard to jobs and locations postings; Although I've worked with many of these people/companies before - please be advised that you contact them at your own risk and need to vet them for yourself. Caveat Emptor."

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Photo: Chris Noth (The Good Wife) and Debra Markowitz at the Nassau County Correctional Center.Editing Job Available: Long Island area Huntington, E. Northport - they need someone with strong Final Cut Pro skills for ongoing projects. This is an assistant editing position at this time. Please drop an email including a resume to: john@digitalcut.comLocation Needed for “Salt” (Starring Angelina Jolie): Must be in Nassau County.They are reshooting the end of feature film, "Salt," starring Angelina Jolie and Liev Shriber. They are looking for probably two days. They need a location that can look like the white house lawn (they will green screen in the White House) and then a lawn that looks like it's heading towards the woods. The catch - they need to land a black hawk helicopter. Know of any Nassau County locations with a large pristine expansive lawn (it does not have to be very green since it's winter) and then a lawn leading into the woods?Location Needed for Kate Winslet film, “Mildred Pierce” Must be in Nassau County. They’re scouting for a neighborhood that has Spanish-style homes - stucco, clay-tiled roofs. Do you know of any other towns that might have whole streets of these homes? Here's a link to some of the homes/towns they’ve shot already. Click on "Mildred Pierce", then "Residential": http://spady.smugmug.com/MILDRED-PIERCE

“The Secret”To Your Dream Job

I’m a believer in a lot of the concepts other people would consider mumbo jumbo. I am a believer in “The Secret,” though I don’t think the book goes deep enough. Yes, you need to know your goals…pretty much anyway. Many of us know our goals, but we only know our goals of the moment. Sometimes where you end up is the best place for you to be, though it may not be where you planned to arrive originally.

I always had visions of myself as a writer since I was six years old. I loved to read and would narrate my life when I was alone. Yes, I actually did that and this was long before reality television. I also wanted to be an actress. I was preparing to do a monologue to audition for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. I chickened out and went to Nassau Community College instead to study theatre/drama. I stayed one semester as a theatre major alongside novelist Ellen Meister who was in my tap and voice classes. We both transferred to other majors. I decided to pursue a career in business believing that I’d never make a living in the entertainment field.

Twenty-four years ago I happened upon a job in the County because it offered me a chance to do some writing. Maybe it wasn’t the novels I thought I’d write, but I got to write speeches, and articles, and literature for County programs. It was a start. Then something else happened. I discovered the Department of Commerce and Industry where, every once in a while, they did a permit for film, commercial or still photography. I jumped on it. Through the Department of C & I, the Nassau County Film Office was born. Maybe it wasn’t the way I thought I’d be part of the entertainment industry, but I was there. I was helping people make movies by facilitating the way for the locations. I started meeting creative people and counting some of them as my friends. In 1998 when I became one of the founders of the Long Island International Film Expo (LIIFE), I’d entered yet another realm of my career. I was getting to meet filmmakers from the world over and learning a lot about the technical process of making a film.

About eight years ago I began writing in earnest. I wrote three novels in a year and started writing commercial scripts and articles for a couple of magazines. So now I was a writer too.

This isn’t exactly the way I thought I’d be doing it, but I am doing it. I began my journey long before I read “The Secret.” I wonder now if I will progress much faster since I do know about the Law of Attraction. And I had another revelation today. While, yes, I’d love to make a very profitable living being a writer – I’d write even if I didn’t make a cent. It is rewarding to create and bring characters to life, but I feel most successful when someone wants to discuss my books and tells me what they mean to them. It really doesn’t get much better than that—to know that you’ve touched someone and made an impact on their lives.

So I guess I was always meant to be a writer and work in the entertainment field or perhaps I designed my life that way. I gave up at one point and never really believed that I could or would. Yet I guess once the goal is set, the vibrations take their course. Could it be “The Secret” is right? Set your goal and the rest follows? Or does destiny merely take you where you need to be? What do you think?

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Location needed for Kate Winslet Miniseries – and – What Pisses You Off?

Locations Needed:

1) HBO miniseries, Mildred Pierce, starring Kate Winslet is looking for a large home or restaurant overlooking the water to look like a Laguna Beach restaurant in the 1930’s. Must be in Nassau County. To shoot spring of 2010.

2) For a Dunkin Donuts commercial – a large, older office needed, circa 60s or 70s. Needs a single office leading into a larger office for this one day shoot.

3) Need a large, modern office for a Fiber One commercial for a one day shoot.

If you have any suggestions in Nassau County, please e-mail debfilm@aol.com.

What Pisses You Off?

I’m not talking about your boyfriend leaving the toilet seat up, or your wife leaving the toothpaste cap off. I’m talking about things that are just…wrong. Actions taken by companies or governments that somehow have become acceptable. How to change them is another thing – but first, let’s get it all off our chests.

Being charged a fee if someone bounces a check on you. Whose bright idea was this? The person who bounces the check, yes. But the person who is the innocent depositer? How is this their fault? Charge the person who bounced the check twice as much, but not the person who is not at fault.

Being charged extra pool fees, laundry fees, conference room fees, etc. on top of what you pay for a hotel room, even if you never used any of those services/rooms. This is not okay. The flat rate should be the flat rate – end of story.

Unless you’re going to be a lawyer, accountant or go into any other specialized field, who decided that it was necessary to get a college degree? My degree did not help me in any of the jobs I’ve held. Did yours? Along with this one, standardized tests that show nothing other than that the person is a good test taker. Why torture students with this? And how do we change it?

Cigarette smokers throwing their cigarette butts out their car windows. What is that about? If you want to smoke it’s your business, but keep your butts in your car. If you don’t want to dirty your car, don’t smoke. I walk almost every day, and you can’t go a foot without seeing several cigarette butts on the ground. If you can get a ticket for littering – why isn’t this taken seriously? If you drive in New York for at least 15 minutes, I can pretty much guarantee you’ll see at least one person throw a butt out their window and onto the ground. Any advice to fix this?

Gum crackers. It may be fun, take stress off, or be unconscious, but it’s really annoying to the people around you. Please keep your slurping, cracking, popping and other annoying sounds to yourself. Thank you 

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Filmmakers Connection Networking Opportunity – and – Family? What Does it Mean to You?

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 7:00 pm at Five Towns College, Dix Hills, Room 303 – meet award winning filmmaker Russ Camarda (Night for Day, Lower Than the Angels), DP Sean King (Lost Suburbia, The Ghouligans!), Fusion Effects special effects people Brian Schuly and Waldo Warshaw and casting agent Donna McKenna at the November Filmmakers Connection meeting. Bring headshots, resumes and business cards and be prepared to learn and network! $5 meeting fee for nonmembers, meeting free for members and student with appropriate ID. For more information, check www.LongIslandFilm.com.

Family? What Does It Mean To You?

I’m rethinking family. I was brought up in a very large Italian family. My mother always drilled into our brains, “friends are friends, but family is forever!” That from a woman who, rightly or wrongly, doesn’t speak to most of her living sisters now. But I believed that. Not that I liked everyone in my very large family. Although there’s just my brother and myself and our families, because my mother was one of 11 living sisters at one time, I have cousins up the wazoo.

When I got married, I had a blended family of my daughter and two stepchildren who lived with me. We were a family. I loved the family vacations, big Christmases and Christmas Eves over my house. I enjoyed the Halloween parades and the painful plays and recitals. When my stepson moved out in an unpleasant way – I was heartbroken. I saw the trunk of my family tree begin to show fractures. He and I kept in touch, though he didn’t speak to his father for several years. When my ex made it clear he had better things to do than be married to me, my relationship with my stepdaughter started crumbling as well. I guess part of that had something to do with her being a teenager too. Still, it felt good to include them in our family functions. I remember thinking quite profoundly that “family is what you make it.” When they stopping coming around, I was quite hurt till I decided it was probably for the best. I didn’t want to be around people who didn’t want to be around us. I still had my daughter, and our large family Christmases including my brother’s family, my parents and a myriad of cousins, elderly Aunt and friends, and most recently, John.

One of my cousins announced the other day that they just moved to a new home and since they have a young child, they’d like to start traditions of their own. I can’t really blame them. I will admit it was a bit tacky that they told me that without extending an invitation to my family – but that’s okay. It’s pretty clear where we stand. So after brooding for a day and a half, I tried to focus on all the money I’ll save and how much easier it will be. Then they asked if I wouldn’t mind if they came Christmas day instead. So much for saving money. My answer was, “of course you should come.” We were family, and I love them.

But the thought stream had begun. What will family holidays mean to me in the future? John had commented how the dining room was a wasted room. Except for the holidays, it’s just not used. One of the reasons I wanted to keep my house was for family gatherings. In the future, I do see them getting smaller and more…intimate. And what if, to be totally melodramatic, I am all alone one day. How will I celebrate? I have to think I still would. Maybe with some dynamite eggplant parmagiana and reliving an entire television series that I loved. If I were able bodied enough, I’d volunteer at a homeless shelter, or nursing home – somewhere, where people were alone as well.

So what is family anyway? Blood relations? Friends you love, whose lives change? Family that move on or away? An entire universe of like-minded and souled spirits who pass in the night but occasionally connect? Or are we it? Are we our own families? Celebrating who we are and occasionally bringing others with us? What do you think?

Naked in the Rain

About Me

Debra Markowitz is the Director of the Nassau County Film Office. In this capacity, Ms. Markowitz presides over the Nassau County Film Commission, now known as the Nassau County Film Advisory Board, and chairs as its Executive Director.
Ms. Markowitz also serves as Vice President of the Long Island Film/TV Foundation, Long Island’s most established and largest not-for-profit agency dedicated to the support and promotion of independent filmmaking. She also helped found the Long Island International Film Expo (LIIFE).
Debra Markowitz is also a freelance writer and novelist. The third book in her trilogy (following Naked in the Rain and Sarah and Caleb), Karmic Wind is set for release in 2013. For a complete list of her work, please visit her site, www.debramarkowitz.com.
An enthusiastic fellow filmmaker, Ms. Markowitz has acted as Casting Director, consultant, writer and producer on movie, television and commercial projects individually and with CastingKarma.
Debra Markowitz is also an avid yoga practitioner.